Hearn'd it all before: or have we? Orient chairman's real motivation for wanting Olympic Stadium move

Football club chairmen are generally pretty conspicuous characters these days, but even by 21st century standards, Leyton Orient chairman Barry Hearn is an outstanding figure; to West Ham fans anywhere. We've all heard so much of his inferiority complex-addled bleating about our proposed move to the Olympic Stadium and his hammed-up claims about how the move would mean that "Leyton Orient will not survive," but has anyone ever considered that Mr Hearn might have more in his mind than the future of the O's?

In a recent article on the Life's A Pitch blog, Orient fan Mark Waters has revealed that Hearn, having had his "fun" that he stated the club were going to have when he took over at Brisbane Road in 1995, would now prefer it if the club did not dig into his retirement fund: Barry wants out. 

In his article, Waters states that "if Hearn wanted to rip the club off, he could have done so many years ago," so is not suggesting any unfair play on the O's chairman's part; more that he's after a quick fix solution to the problem of having a £6m property; the club's Matchroom Stadium ground; that he can't shift. The Olympic Stadium would seem to represent the perfect quick-fix solution to that problem. 

"West Ham's proposal to remove the running track obstacle (from the Olympic Stadium) gives him the opportunity to find the club another home; with a face-saving get-out from a previous objections (with regard to the running track). The little matter of Orient's 4-5,000 supporters rattling round in a 60,000 stadium doesn't seem to bother him." 

Were the club to relocate to Stratford, Hearn would seem to have his perfect get-out from Leyton Orient and could retire happy to Marbella or whatever it is football club wheeler-dealers do these days; and with all his retirement pension intact and none of it eaten up by grounds and players and wages and all those things that matter to football supporters. Funny old game, ain't it?

By Alex Shilling, News Editor

@alexshilling